1120       

1120 Manchester-Kendal-Halifax
"One writeth that about 1120 (a mistake for 1520, about 12 H 8) there were three famous clothiers living in the north country-viz., Cuthbert of Kendal, Hodgkins of Halifax, and Martin Brian, some say Byrom, of Manchester ... he sayeth also that the sayd Martin gave much money to the building of a free school in Manchester." (Hollinworth's Mancuniensis.) This has been frequently repeated, but Martin Byrom is purely mythical, and the passage is based on one of Thomas Deloney's romances and has no historic value at all.(7)